


And It Ended in Fire

by DreamersAndThieves



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-28
Updated: 2015-03-28
Packaged: 2018-03-20 01:28:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3631521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamersAndThieves/pseuds/DreamersAndThieves
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So this story picks up where The Dream Thieves leaves off. Kavinsky gets killed by the fire beast and Proko is asleep. But there's definitely more to the story than that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The night explodes in fire, not with Molotov cocktails and fireworks as it usually did, and horrible screeches of otherworldly animalsfill the air. It explodes in fury and anger as the beasts fight. Then it just ends, the fire beast careens into one of the Mitsubishi copies, using the last of its fiery breath to engulf a silhouette in an inferno. Two cars were out on the straightaway at the time, the drivers too out of it to even care. One car skids out of control just as the beast crashes to the ground, seemingly lifeless.

There wasn’t really any need for the street lights, the rouge fires were giving off enough light to be seen for miles around. Screams could be heard from every possible direction, everyone was just now beginning to realize something fucking strange was going on. Everyone ran to escape the destruction, even though the damage was done. Swan was shielding a barely conscious Skov from one of K’s dream cars exploding as he continues to babble about having the time of his life. Jiang, being the only one who kept a level head in situations like this had been pushing through the fleeing crowd to get to his remaining friends. Being the only one who could function without freaking the hell out, he lead the two to his miraculously untouched car and headed back to Kavinsky’s mansion. He’d seen what happened, the dream creature swallowed K whole, but he wasn’t ready to believe his friend was actually dead this time.

Swan and Skov were in the back, they’d clearly been enjoying themselves until the party abruptly ended. As Jiang pulled into the long driveway, Swan leaned forward to be between the two front seats, just inches from Jiang’s face. “He’s dead, isn’t he?”

Jiang didn’t want to answer.

* * *

           Just a few hours later, Skov had regained his composure and kept insisting that they had to go back. And so they did.

           “First thing’s first, we gotta find Proko,” Swan states. But like it’s going to be that easy, the whole field was ash and melted Mitsubishis. Plus, the cops were there. Who knows, the FBI could be on their way because there’s some huge dragon corpse that’s still  _alive_.

           “He was in his car the last I saw,” Jiang replies and starts leading the other two boys around the edge of the clearing toward the hundreds of twisted, fire burnt cars. The cops were busy trying to figure out what was going on with the dragon and had also caught some of the Aglionby kids who were too intoxicated to flee the scene when everyone else did. The three sneak around to the edge of the field and weave through the burned and twisted car parts until they reach the last few. Swan nudges Jiang’s side with his elbow and points over to where it looked like two cars had fused together in a crash. One was a dream car and the other was Proko’s. Thank god the police were too busy with everything else, because they were the first to get to him.

           They all knew that Proko was a dream at this point, even though Skov didn’t quite know what it meant, still. Jiang had heard rumors about the Lynch’s father, his dream things went to sleep after he died, but he had no idea what that meant for K’s things. Swan is the first to see Proko. He, like all of daddy Lynch’s stuff, was asleep. There were a few cuts and bruises along his arms and face from shattered glass, but he was still intact and breathing. Swan had let go of Skov’s hand and was shaking Proko’s shoulders to try and get him to wake up.

           “He’s asleep, Swan, he’s not gonna wake up since K is gone.”

           “Kavinsky isn’t—”

           “Of course he’s fucking dead! Did you not see the dragon he brought out of his dreams?! It swallowed him fucking whole!” Skov yells, throwing his hands into the air in surrender. Swan stares for a moment then motions for Jiang to take care of Proko.

           “Hey, we’ll figure it out, ‘kay? We’ll get everything back to normal.” But Skov didn’t want to listen to anyone’s crap, he shoves Swan back and turns on his heel to head back to Jiang’s car. The police just on the other side of the ashy field had heard the little outburst and were heading over to check it out. Jiang and Swan worked quickly to pry the car door open and pull Proko out. They manage to drag Proko back to the parked car and speed back to K’s house, it’s not like anyone else would be using it.

* * *

           “We gotta find Lynch. He knows what to do with shit like this,” Jiang states. They had laid Proko on the bed he had used to sleep in when they’d spend nights at K’s house. The three of them were gathered in the living room connected to everything else in the house. Skov was practically attached to Swan after apologizing profusely for losing his shit last night.

           Swan doesn’t look up from his and Skov’s interlocked hands. “Why would Lynch ever help us?”

           “Maybe ‘cause he actually cares,” Jiang states with a roll of his eyes then gets up. “I’m going to get breakfast, you two get some sleep.” They had no problem going along with that, now. But in the morning, they’d have to deal with Skov. No one had ever seen him act like that, well maybe Swan had since he’d known him the longest. Everyone heard stories about Skov’s family, his dad in particular. Maybe this shit was just the final straw for him. But either way, everyone’s gonna be pretty fucked up now that Kavisnky is gone. K was the glue in their ragtag group, Swan and Skov would stay together, that’s for sure. But if they couldn’t get Proko back then there was just the three of them. Jiang stayed for the safety of the group, he was the one making sure no one died. He failed. So there was no point anymore.

           Jiang stood at the kitchen counter for the longest time, just staring down at the glass of water he had gotten for himself, before the two of them came down to see him.

           “Can’t sleep.” Skov mutters, still attached to Swan as he held on for dear life to his hand.

           “Noticed,” Jiang mutters and takes a deep breath. “So do you guys want me to make pancakes or something?”

           “Yeah, then we can go find Lynch.” Skov replies in a whisper accompanied by a nod.

           Jiang raises an eyebrow, eyeing them for a bit before going to find the ingredients that K always had in the pantry. The  _only_ ingredients he ever had since they figured out that Jiang could make some pretty mean pancakes in the morning.

           As Jiang makes the pancakes, the two other boys gather up the syrup, butter and various other ingredients to put on top of their breakfast. Everything went back to normal for the moment, right up until they all sat down at the kitchen table to eat. The halfway open cabinets slam themselves closed and a shimmery figure fades into existence leaning against the doorway.

           “So why the fuck are you three going to talk to princess Lynch without me?”


	2. Chapter 2

No one dared to move. Swan had frozewith a fork halfway to his mouth. Jiang just stared at the shimmery figure and Skov, who was still making his way to the table almost fell over.

           “It’s like you’ve seen a ghost,” K drawls out with a smirk on his face. Swan opens his mouth to speak only to be silenced when Kavinsky puts his hand up. “I know what the fuck happened, don’t bother explaining it to me.”

           “You let it happen,” Jiang snaps. His gaze was hard as a rock. He saw what happened and he knew what K was doing, K knew what he was doing and he let it happen.

           “So? You gonna go home and cry ‘cause I committed suicide by dragon? Princess Lynch already did.”

           “You’re fucking dead and you’re still obsessing over him? What the fuck is your problem? I know you only care about yourself but now Proko is in a coma and your  _best friends_ are having mental breakdowns,” Jiang states then gets up. He walks over to Kavinsky, glaring down at him. “You need to fix this, Joseph, I don’t care what your plans are. But you need to fix this.”

* * *

           They had been left to eat their breakfast after K demanded a pancake for himself (Jiang had to rudely remind him that ghosts can’t eat food). But now they had gathered back up in the second floor living room where the last three  _living_ friends had camped out. Kavinsky was standing over Proko, who was still motionless on the bed where they’d put him the night before, when the three boys “Wait, so you went to go see Lynch before you found us?” Skov asks.

           “Of course I went to see him, he couldn’t see me. But damn, does that baby cry at night. I thought he was going to go sleep with Dick. And don’t get so jealous, I’m here with you bastards now, aren’t I?”

           “Did you really want to die?” Swan asks quietly, although he already knew the answer. Skov elbows him in the ribs, giving him a warning look. They had all talked about this one night, or a couple of nights, when they were all high and intoxicated.

           “I did. I’ve wanted to for years, little bird.” Kavinsky replies without hesitation. The same answer he had given to them the past few times anyone had asked. The same answer he had given to therapists that Aglionby had sent him to when he wasn’t able to escape. They’d given him countless prescriptions for drugs that would  _“help him”_ but he just threw them out the window of his dream car as he headed down the highway. There were some nights, though, thousands of those little white sheets of paper would surround K’s bed. Those little white sheets were referrals to local doctors, international doctors, pharmacies for medicine he could take and so many other things. Kavinsky thought that he had cleaned all of them up most nights, but Jiang had found one or two every couple times. The pack had staged their own little intervention once, but like that would ever work for a dreamer like K. No one could help him much except Proko, he was the solution and the problem. Proko was the one who sent Kavinsky into this downward spiral in the first place.

           After a long pause looking around at his boys, particularly at Jiang, Kavinsky continues. “So  _again_ , why did you three want to go talk to Lynch?”

           “To wake Proko up. Ronan has to know something about it, you said it yourself that his mom is a dream thing like Proko,” Jiang states and rolls his eyes. “Why else would we go talk to him? We don’t have an obsession with him like you do.”

           “I’m not obsessed with him, I’m just curious about him.”

           “Obsessed,” Skov whispers. K glares at the three of them and frowns a bit as his form flickers and eventually disappears into nothing. The three remaining look around in confusion then just sit back and decide to wait. Maybe it was a thing that happened before, he would probably be back soon.

* * *

           Days pass and Kavinsky still hasn’t come back. Skov always stayed with Proko, just to be sure he was safe. While Jiang and Swan decided to go beg for Lynch’s help, and they actually got answers. Ronan only gave them the answers because he thought Kavinsky was gone, something about the ley line being more stable now because K was being too reckless. Lynch even gave them a lift to the magical little forest that gives dream things life. Proko was given a third chance at life, how lucky. The boys just wished that Kavinsky was given a second chance. A real second chance, but he had already made his decision final.

* * *

            _Kavinsky was stuck in a dream. Every other time he could have taken things, he could’ve torn his way out of the forest. But this time he was trapped. He was trapped and he was starting to panic. Things were getting closer, his demons and other things he pulled out of his dreams. Something rustled the bushes beside him and he turned to run. He ran past piles of empty glass bottles, he stepped on quite a few and glass exploded everywhere. The pieces embedded themselves in his heels, making it almost impossible to run anymore. Faceless people call out for him, call out for his death._

_A dragon screeches in the sky above the forest and the trees scream at him. They scream that he was a failure, they scream that he almost destroyed them. A sound from the left startles K and he face plants into the compact earth. Tears stream down his face as he curls into a tight ball, praying, begging for the creatures to stay away from him._

_A hand touches his shoulder as he sobs, rocking back and forth to try and bring himself some comfort. “Jo. Hey, Jo, it’s okay. Please don’t cry, it’s just me.”_ Oh god, his voice. It’s him.

            _“Alexei, I’m so sorry. I couldn’t save you…I couldn’t even save myself.” Strong hands pull Kavinsky into a tight embrace, he’s resting his head back against Proko’s chest. K keeps himself curled up tightly, not daring to open his eyes. He wanted to stay in this dream within a dream for as long as he could._

_Proko whispers reassurance in his ear, telling Kavinsky that he was still loved. Telling him that everything would be okay in the end. But the dragon and the trees were still screeching at K and he couldn’t take it anymore. He was sobbing again and covering his ears, blocking out the noise of the demons and the voice of the only person who could help him. He screams for silence, he screams for the end._

_And finally it comes._

The trees whisper to their savior, they whisper praises and tell of a thief in the forest. They lead the greywaren to the shuddering heap of a soul. They shout for the greywaren to destroy the spirit, they urge him to take anything, _everything_  that could destroy the soul of the thief that ever stole from them.

           But Ronan just stares. He knows this is Kavinsky, the boy who taught him how to really use his gift. The boy who did so much wrong, but still wanted to pay for his crimes with every fiber of his being.

           Ronan did not listen to the trees of Cabeswater. He kneels beside Kavinsky and focuses with everything he had. Ronan brings the ghost of a broken boy out of his dream. Freeing Kavinsky from his own nightmare.


	3. Chapter 3

Ronan could never resist any small fragile thing. And in this one moment, this one single moment, Ronan sees Kavinsky as a weak little thing. Exactly what he saw and needed to protect when he brought Chainsaw out of his dream accidentally in that church. He rescued a sobbing, broken down Joseph Kavinsky from the nightmare that Cabeswater was for him. He had no idea what was going on or what had made the wicked prince of Henrietta like that, or why he kept crying out for Prokopenko.

           Although, the latter, he might know the cause of. Kavinsky’s pack of dogs came to beg him for information days ago because they needed a way to wake Proko up. Ronan knew that the boy was a dream thing, but he was still surprised to actually hear it. The dogs told Ronan of K’s adventures before he moved to Henrietta. The adventures involving the real Prokopenko, and it was tragic.

           Ronan had no idea why Kavinsky was a ghost, he knew only that Noah was stuck like that because of his connection with Gansey. But the ley line or Cabeswater controls the  _“spiritual energy”_  of the place. It causes Noah’s disappearances and his energy outbursts. Ronan only had time to think about these things because he was taking a small vacation, by himself, at the Barns. He was still busy trying to dream up things for practice, although he didn’t need any. He didn’t need to keep up with Kavinsky anymore, or so he thought.

           Kavinsky was a shuddering ball of energy. A grenade with the pin pulled, even more explosive now since he had nothing to lose. K was his own sun, shooting off arcs of energy in every direction each time he cried out in pain, his demons were still chasing him. He wakes from the nightmare around dawn, when most nightmares end, and he does not bring anything with him. He’s lost his connection with Cabeswater, the connection allowing him to steal, but it still keeps him alive. Kavinsky wakes with a start, letting out a small scream, his eyes glistening with tears that will never fall.

           “You’re finally awake.”

           “If that’s what you want to call it,” Kavinsky replies, his voice sounding hoarse. All that screaming. His clear eyes scan the giant room he was in, looking for monsters, looking for familiarity, but he finds none. “Where the fuck are we?”

           “Somewhere you should never come back to. Your pack of dogs called me at three in the morning, you’re wanted. So get up, we’re going.”

           Kavinsky rolls his eyes, scrutinizing Ronan for the first time since he had died. The other dreamer looked tired, worried, scared…K had never seen Ronan look scared. Maybe just one other time, the last night of his life when Ronan was searching frantically for his angelic, pretty boy little brother. He had been staring for too long, Ronan’s icy glare was on him, just waiting to make contact.

           But Lynch says nothing. He turns on his heel and heads to the door, not even turning back to see if Kavinsky was following. Ronan makes his way to the impossibly black BMW and waits just a moment for K to appear in the passenger side before speeding off down the narrow driveway. They don’t speak until they’re in the middle of a long, winding back road of Henrietta.

           “Why’d you take me out of there?”

           “I’m taking you back there,” Ronan says with no emotion. “That’s where your pack of dogs are. The forest isn’t just in our dreams, it’s real.”

           “What?” Kavinsky asks, his eyes widening in genuine surprise as he sits up straighter in the leather seat. “Why the fuck are they there?”

           “Because they care about Prokopenko.”

           “I care.”

           “Clearly.”

* * *

           Swan had been the smartest of them in the semi-darkness of the Virginian summer night. He’d piled heaps of blankets and the only two sleeping bags he could find in the Kavinsky mansion into the back of his Golf before they all set out to the coordinates Lynch sent them. No one was really sure if Lynch was telling the truth or not, but that’s all they had to get Proko back.

           They’d loaded up into silver Golf and the only precaution from there was Skov strapping Proko in with a seatbelt. There was no talking at all except for the occasional direction from Jiang, who sat in the passenger seat. Halfway to the coordinates Skov had stolen the aux cord and started to play some odd remix of an AWOLNATION song. Music filled the silence.

           They got to the magical forest Lynch described just half an hour later and decided to camp on the side of the tiny dirt road beside the car. Jiang unbuckled Proko from the back seat and put him in the passenger seat. He proceeded to steal a blanket from the trunk and make himself comfortable, soft snores were heard not but two minutes later.

           Skov reluctantly switches back into action, going around to the trunk to grab the two sleeping bags. He looks toward the front seat where Swan hasn’t moved. The ground beside the road slopes gently downward toward a huge sprawling forest,  _it looks like it’s shimmering_ , Skov thinks to himself.  _Maybe it is magical._

           “Hey, want any help?” Swan asks, walking up beside Skov as he’s looking out at the forest. He has dark circles beneath his eyes, Skov notices. None of them had really slept much since  _it_ happened. But maybe things would change now.

           “Yeah, sure. Just unzip the one sleeping bag and we’ll but the other on top of us like a blanket,” Skov murmurs then rubs at one of his eyes. Swan claps a hand over his shoulder then gives Skov a quick peck on the cheek before spreading the first sleeping bag out like a little makeshift mattress for the two of them.

           “You’re one of the strangest people I’ve ever met,” Swan replies. His voice was soft, so was his smile when he lifts his head to look back up at Skov. “No one ever does this. Sleeping bags are meant to be slept in, not on.”

           “The world needs strange people once in a while. Plus, you’ve got a strange obsession with drawing or graffiti-ing over whatever you can,” Skov replies and starts to unzip the second sleeping bag. Swan just laughs his airy little laugh and lays back on the makeshift mattress.

           Skov flings the two corners of the sleeping bag he wasn’t holding into the air to straighten it out, then lays down beside Swan. They both settle in under the blanket, just staring up at the stars in silence for a few moments. Swan then turns on his side to look at Skov. “Proko is moving around a bit, he’s still not awake. But it’s like he’s asleep, not in a coma.”

           “Means the forest really is magic.”

           “It’s weird that these things exist, isn’t it?” Swan asks then frowns a bit. His face scrunches up, in the oddest way. It doesn’t look like confusion, it’s more like wonder.

           “You really think a magical forest is weirder than people pulling shit out of their dreams, Swan?” Skov asks and rolls his eyes, finally turning his head to look over at Swan.

           “Nah, not really. It’s all just so strange. If I never transferred schools then I wouldn’t even know about all of this.”

           “But you’re glad you transferred, right?” Skov asks, turning his eyes back to the heavens.

           “Of course I am, Misha. I never would’ve met you if I didn’t.” And then there’s silence. There’s only a few smoky breaths between them before their lips meet. It’s soft and sweet, more reassurance than anything. After a long while, the world begins to fade. Swan wraps himself around Skov and sleep envelops them.

* * *

           The black BMW glides down the road with a cloud of dirt and dust trailing behind it. Jiang is the only one awake at the time, he was sprawled on the hood of Swan’s car watching the sun rise over the tree tops for the longest time. Ronan stops the car beside the Golf and gets out just as Kavinsky shimmers into existence beside the passenger door.

           “You fuckers were out here all night?” K asks with a skeptical look in his eyes.

           “Uh, yeah. We thought you and Lynch were coming sooner,” Jiang states then slides off the hood to look at Ronan through the rolled down BMW window. “So how does this work?”

           “Take Proko into the forest, he won’t be able to come out. He’ll go back to sleep again if he comes out. But that’s it. Oh, and electronics don’t work. So don’t get lost in there,” Ronan replies then shrugs. With that, he leaves. Probably has to run back to Dick III, anyway.

           Jiang and Kavinsky regard each other for a long time before anyone makes a move. K leans forward a bit to look inside the Golf at Proko then walks around to the back. “Who the fuck sleeps like that on a sleeping bag?”

           Jiang turns to follow Kavinsky and looks down at the makeshift nest that Skov and Swan had made and shrugs. “Apparently those two.”

           “Well, get ‘em up. It’s time to wake Proko from the dead.”


End file.
